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I
was way too wild for college at the traditional age. In my 30s, my lack
of a college education felt like unfinished business and I went back
to try again. I majored in biology at Norwich University, with a
focus on ecology. Thanks to a twist of fate, I took on second major
in Religious Studies. I completed these degrees in 1991. I earned a
MS in Natural Resources at the University of Vermont 3 years later.
I came close to finishing a Ph.D. in Natural Resources, also at the
University of Vermont, but decided that wasn’t the best course of
study for me.
My graduate work at UVM focused on
aquatic communities, particularly predator-prey relationships. I
like trying to figure out how natural communities are put together,
although I know that I can never understand at more than the
simplest level. I love this work because it gets me outside and lets
me marvel.
As much as I love being out in the
field, I came to feel dissatisfied with the questions I was able to
ask and answer through the traditional reductionistic scientific
methodology. While at UVM, I was introduced to Goethe’s scientific
practice, which is holistic, observation- and imagination-based, and
qualitative rather than quantitative. I began to grasp something of
what this might mean as I experimented with his methodology. This
non-traditional, but rigorous, practice offers me a way to engage
all of myself – not just my intellect. So I withdrew from UVM, and
and am now
actively engaged in exploring my interest in qualitative research in
ecology as an independent scholar.
Currently in my research, I’m exploring pond ecology, trying to
understand pond processes and inhabitants in a different way than I
have before.
I’ve mentored a wide range of
independent studies in Cycle and Brattleboro Weekend ADP, in New
College, and in Virtual Vermont. I’m particularly interested in
nature study, in human health including alternative or holistic
healing, and in environmental science and environmental studies. I
have a deep interest in evolutionary theory, especially concerning
the evolution of human behavior. I also am quite familiar with
statistical analysis and comfortable with what you might call
practical mathematics –for example, the kind of math you need to
read about newspaper polls critically, to understand the use of
numerical information by influence groups, or to make wise financial
choices.
I continue to have an interest in
religious studies, particularly the relationship of contact with the
natural world to spirituality. Actually, I’m interested in all the
interfaces of science and the other disciplines – science and
religion, science and art, science and society – these and more are
fruitful areas to explore.
It's hard to summarize my interests,
which are many and broad, in one page! The Gaia hypothesis,
sustainability, animal behavior, ecological footprints, evolution,
biotechnology issues, human ecology, frontier scientists, the nature
of life and qualitative science -- these are all areas that excite
me. The more studies I work with, the more my list grows!
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